HIGHER SCOREコミュのPast tense or present tense?

Here are some questions from one of our former students:

1・“Excuse me.I wanted to ask you a favour-I wondered if you could give me a push?”
Q, 'wanted' and 'wondered' refer to the present/the past/the future?

In this case, the words 'wanted' and 'wondered' both refer to the present. This seems strange, as both words are past tense. There are two reasons for this.

First, when native speakers are trying to be polite, they often use indirect language. As a general rule, the past tense form of words is more indirect than the present tense, so the speaker is probably using indirect language in order to be polite. Please note that most native speakers don't need to think about this -- they just do it automatically and naturally.

Second, native speakers sometimes use the past form of words in the present because they are talking about something that they have thought about in the past. For example, if I say "I wanted to ask you a question...", I mean that I want to ask you a question now but I thought about asking you the question in the past.

In the case of your question, I think the first reason is the most likely, but the second reason is also possible.


2・“I 'd rather we got married.”
Q,we got married' refers to the present/the past/the future?

Strangely, this expression refers to the future, and is probably a type of conditional idea. The speaker is probably expressing a preference for one of two choices: for example, 'get married' and 'live together without getting married'. The speaker is saying 'if I can choose, I would choose to get married instead of living together without getting married'. The reason for using the past tense is unclear, but partly it is because of the word 'we'. If the sentence did not have 'we', the most natural sentence would be 'I'd rather get married'. However, with 'we' (or another personal pronoun), the past form is more commonly used. I honestly don't know why, but I think it is just a speech habit.


3・“It's time the British wrote their language phonetically.How can you learn a language when there are eight different ways of saying -ough?”
Q. Why after 'It's the time' is past tense,nevertheless 'It is the time' refer to the present?

This is another good question. After 'It's time...', native speakers usually use one of two patterns:
a) it's time + for + s/body + to do s/thing
b) it's time + s/body + did s/thing

Again, to be honest, I don't know why we use the past tense with pattern b), but I think it is a speech habit. This means there is no reason for it, but it's natural English.

I hope this helps you.